The importance of proper dust collection for woodworking applications.
Many professional woodworking companies spend significant capital on production machinery but fail to adequately address dust collection issues. Proper dust collection has many advantages, well beyond the obvious health benefits. An inadequate dust collection system can result in a poor quality finished product, reduced tooling life, and can damage your woodworking machinery.
Wood dust which is not properly extracted can cause havoc on your finished product. In sanding applications the dust can build up on sanding belts which can load up the belt. This can lead to friction between the belt and the work piece, causing heat, and resulting in a polished finish or a broken belt. It can also cause chatter as you are asking the belt to remove more material than it can actually handle thus the belt will skip because it is overloaded.
On edgebanders it is critical as well. Laminate and PVC chips can fall on to the panel, tracing wheels will roll over these chips causing a poor banded edge finish. Also these chips can get into the glue pot and can contaminate the glue. On moulders and planers inadequate air flow from the collector or poorly designed ducting will result in excess wood chips deflecting back onto the finished work surface, coating feed rolls and being pressed into the wood surface causing small dents in the work-piece. This will force the manufacturer to sand his product to remove the dents or discard the piece.
Port Dia.
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3″
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4″
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5″
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6″
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7″
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8″
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9″
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10”
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12″
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CFM/Port
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225
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400
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600
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900
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1200
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1600
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2000
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2450
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3500
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Other factors to consider when sizing a dust collection system are:
- Type of dust you are collecting: Rough or fine. Fine dust requires more filtration than wood chips. Wood chips require more storage capacity than fine sawdust.
- Are you installing the system indoors or outdoors. For outdoor installations you need to be aware of heat loss as the dust collector collects dust but also pulls the warm air out of your shop. A return air system can be installed to combat this issue. For indoor installations you need to be concerned with noise and local safety/fire codes. Belfab have a Hummer blower which has twice the diameter of fan than a standard blower and rotates at ½ the RPM. The result is in a system which has the same CFM but is 50% quieter. Also in indoor systems some codes specify that you are not allowed to have dust collection systems indoors that are greater than 1500 CFM. Other codes state that for larger systems they are required to be 15’ from the nearest machine operator and some require the system to be put in a separate room behind fire rated drywall.
BELFAB BA-1800 industrial air cleaner is a multi-purpose unit for ambient air filtering. This filtering system can be used on a wide range of industrial shop applications involving releases of fine dust into the air. The BA-1800C is designed to be suspended from the ceiling, while the BA-1800G is to be installed on the ground with the discharge going towards the ceiling, to improve air circulation.
Our Cantek range of portable dust collectors are ideal for smaller shops or shops with existing dust systems which are at capacity or which can’t easily be modified to add existing machinery.
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